Volleyball World, Stephen Hoosier, International Basketball Federation
Team Canada is turning up the heat this weekend! There are the 2024 Paris Basketball 3×3 qualifiers and all the relays in track and field.
Canadian artistic swimmers will test the waters in their Olympic stadium, while Canada's best beach volleyball team will battle the sand in Brazil. Meanwhile, Allison Jackson is hoping to make more magic happen at La Vuelta Femenina.
Here's what you don't want to miss:
Athletics
Canada will look to qualify its relay teams for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the IAAF World Championships meet in Nassau, Bahamas this weekend. And over the weekend, Canada will field teams in all Olympic relay events In an attempt to secure one of the 14 places that will be allocated in each of the five events – the women’s and men’s 4 x 100 meter relay, as well as the women’s, men’s and mixed 4 x 400 meter relay.
The match begins on Saturday with qualifiers for each relay. The top two teams in each qualifier will qualify for Paris 2024 and the final on Sunday. All other teams will participate in another qualifying round on Sunday, with the top two teams in each qualifier qualifying for Paris 2024. In the finals, medals and cash prizes will be contested. The results of the finals will also determine lane allocation at the Olympic Games.
Canada will be closely watching the men's 4 x 100-meter relay, featuring the quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre de Grasse, who won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before going on to win gold in 2022. IAAF World Championships, We'll be back together at the starting line.
Read: Andre de Grasse has his eyes on Paris 2024
In the women's 4 x 400 meter relay, Canada put in an impressive performance at the 2023 World Championships in Athletics, finishing fourth. Canada also finished on the podium at the 2020 Tokyo event.
Among the Canadian athletes who could start in the men's 4 x 400 meter and mixed 4 x 400 meter relays are 800 meter world champion Marco Arup and Christopher Morales Williams, who set a world indoor record in the 400 meter a few months ago and couldn't believe it. on him.
The final two Olympic places in each relay will be allocated on June 30 based on the World Athletics performance list during the qualifying period.
Basketball 3×3
Fresh off a win in the first FIBA Women's Series stop of the 2024 season, Team Canada will look to carry that momentum into the FIBA 3×3 World Olympic Qualifying Championships taking place this weekend in Utsunomiya, Japan.
READ: Canada's women's 3×3 team pushes toward Paris while prioritizing emotion
Cassandra Brown will support Michelle Plouffe, Katherine Plouffe, Paige Crozon and Casey Bush in their quest to secure Canada's spot in the Women's 3×3 Championships in Paris 2024. Only one Olympic spot will be awarded to each gender at this tournament. The remaining three seats for each gender will be up for grabs from May 16-19 in Debrecen, Hungary. China, France, Azerbaijan and the United States have already qualified for the women's tournament in Paris 2024.
Team Canada has a reputation for rising to the occasion, having won back-to-back FIBA Women's 3×3 Series titles in 2022 and 2023. If the team qualifies, it will become Canada's first 3×3 Olympic team.
Beach volleyball
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandi Wilkerson will take part in the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 tournament in Brasilia, Brazil this weekend. The Canadians will play in Group D, starting with a match against Brazil on Thursday afternoon.
The duo placed fifth at the recent Elite16 event in Tepic, Mexico in April. They have never missed the quarter-finals in any tournament since teaming up with the team before last season.
The event in Tepic was Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson's 12th tournament together. This was the number required for their world ranking to count towards Olympic qualification. The FIVB Olympic rankings list won't officially close until June 10, but the Canadian pair currently sit in fifth place, provisionally qualifying them for one of 17 women's beach volleyball tickets to Paris 2024.
Artistic swimming
Team Canada has the opportunity to test the waters at the brand-new Aquatics Center where the Paris 2024 Olympic events will be held this summer. The second leg of the FINA World Cup takes place this weekend.
On Friday, Jacqueline Simoneau will participate in the solo routine before teaming up with Audrey Lamothe in the duet routine. The swimmers will then be among the eight athletes participating in the team technical routine. Saturday will feature the duet and team free routines, followed by Sunday the individual free routines and team acrobatics.
Last February, Simoneaux, who returned to the national team since last September after taking a two-year sabbatical to devote herself to school, was crowned the world champion in the freestyle singles after winning the silver medal in the individual artistic event at the World Aquatics Championships. Championship in Doha. Canada placed sixth in the technical routine, seventh in the free routine and fourth in the acrobatic routine.
The pair event and team event are contested at the Olympic Games. While in the World Cup, medals are awarded for each routine, in the Olympic Games, the overall standings are determined by combining the results of the different routines: free and technical for the duet event, and free, technical and acrobatic for the team event.
Road cycling
Team Canada fans will be watching the multi-stage cycling race, La Vuelta Femenina, this week. The race in Spain was already a success for Canadian Allison Jackson, who won the second stage while representing the EF Education – Cannondale team.
“I came with real fire to win this. Even when I started in the rain, I thought this could be a very good day and I just had to be a little more careful than usual. I was lucky because I was always in the right place at the right time,” Jackson said after the stage. “With my teammates who guided me from start to finish.”
Also among the contestants is Canadian Olivia Burrell, who races with the Movistar team. She finished third in the third stage on Tuesday.
Jackson currently sits fourth in the points standings. The eight-stage race concludes on Sunday in Madrid.
